101 Cult Films I Must See Before I Die

"Yup, that's an ear all right." If you're watching a movie and someone says a line like this while examining a severed ear found on a lawn, you might be watching a cult film. I say "might" because the boundaries of this genre are as fuzzy as the interior of Barbarella's spaceship; a cult film is what any reasonably well-informed pundit says it is, even though several classic movies lumped into the genre were popular mainstream hits.

The editors of 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die have chosen 101 cult films as one of several less intimidating alternatives to their master list of over 1,000 films. Let's see how many of their cult movies I've managed to see thus far...as ever, those I've seen are listed in bold. 

Un Chien Andalou

Reefer Madness

Sullivan's Travels

Out of the Past

Sunset Boulevard

The Night of the Hunter

Rebel Without a Cause

The Blob

Plan 9 from Outer Space

Jazz on a Summer's Day

The Servant

Shock Corridor

Bande A Part

Scorpio Rising

Faster, Pussycat - Kill! Kill!

Blow-Up

Chelsea Girls

Persona

Barbarella

Les Idoles

Easy Rider

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

El Topo

Le Boucher

The Lickerish Quartet

Performance

Harold and Maude

Two Lane Blacktop

Vampyros Lesbos

Vanishing Point

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

The Harder They Come

Pink Flamingos

Superfly

Sisters

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

The Night Porter

Phantom of the Paradise

Grey Gardens

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Sholay

Tommy

The Last Wave

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

I Spit on Your Grave

The Wiz

Zoltan, Hound of Dracula

Mad Max

Life of Brian

The Warriors

The Blues Brothers

Ms. 45

Time Bandits

Basket Case

Fitzcarraldo

Wild Style

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai

This is Spinal Tap

The Toxic Avenger

Blue Velvet

The Hitcher

Manhunter

Withnail and I

Amazon Women on the Moon

Barfly

The Princess Bride

Wings of Desire

The Decline of Western Civilization, Part II: The Metal Years

Hairspray

Alice (Neco Z Alenky)

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Heathers

Mystery Train

Frankenhooker

Barton Fink

Brain Dead

Dazed and Confused

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Clerks

Shallow Grave

The City of Lost Children

La Haine

Showgirls

Crash

Twilight of the Ice Nymphs

The Big Lebowski

Buffalo '66

Le Diner Des Cons

Run Lola Run

Rushmore

Office Space

Battle Royale

Memento

Donnie Darko

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Ichi the Killer

The Room

Kamikaze Girls

Napoleon Dynamite

Brick

I've seen 46 of these cult films; some of them are among my very favourite movies of all, including Blue Velvet, Buckaroo Banzai, Memento, Brain Dead, Heathers, The Blob, Sunset Boulevard, Plan 9 From Outer Space and Rebel Without a Cause. A few are on my soon-to-watch list: The Night of the Hunter, Out of the Past, Persona, Performance, Superfly, Ms. 45 and Battle Royale. Others way well fall into the "I can't believe you haven't seen..." category: Napoleon Dynamite,  Barton Fink, Manhunter, Two Lane Blacktop, Harold and Maude. I'll get to them; I have to, now that I've made this list. 

Among my friends I'm known to have a somewhat hit-or-miss track record when it comes to suggesting movies the entire group might enjoy. One of the films on this list, Sam Peckinpah's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, probably best exemplifies that phenomenon. We got together to watch a movie at Jeff's place - "we" being Colin, Mike, Pete and Jeff and me. My friends hated it, whereas I thought it had a pretty important point to make and made it well. You can read my review here. 

In my defence, I haven't always been the one to choose a film poorly. I believe it was Dustin who decided we should see Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, another of the films on this list, and while I laughed my way through the film in delight, the rest of our little band, including Dustin, weren't nearly so entertained.